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Whatever You Have Beef Stew

This week has been a blur. Devin started school on the 20th. Classes at VCU started for me last week on the 23rd so this was my first full week of classes. We’re both getting used to getting up early. He took a 3+ hour nap when he got home from school one day! It’s Labor Day weekend though, so with no school on Monday for both of us I can write on my blog, clean the house, do some homework and enjoy our last weekend at the pool for the summer!

The stew I made today is inspired by the rainy day and the bits and pieces of veggies from my cooking this past week that were left in my fridge. In the crisper drawer I had a quarter of a package of baby carrots, a bag of celery with only 2 stalks left, a yellow pepper and half of a large onion. My mom’s fresh canned tomatoes had been opened a few days ago for use in another recipe and I knew the rest of them needed to be used up soon. In the pantry I had a few tiny red potatoes. Making this stew was meant to be!

We served it with cornbread muffins:

Travis took some leftovers to his 95 year-old grandfather and he called me the next day to tell me how much he enjoyed it. He said that, “he wasn’t sure it was beef stew but whatever is was it was really, really good”! How great is that?? Thanks Grandpa!

Whatever You Have Beef Stew

1 pound ground beef (93% lean)

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 stalks celery, thinly sliced

handful baby carrots, sliced

1/2 of a large yellow onion, diced

1 yellow pepper, sliced into strips and diced small

3 zucchini, quartered and sliced

1 – 16 ounce bag frozen, chopped spinach

12 tiny red potatoes, sliced

1/2 quart fresh canned tomatoes (a 28 ounce can would work great)

2 cups beef broth

1 bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

In a medium skillet cook ground beef and the minced garlic along with a little salt and pepper until the ground beef is cooked through.

Meanwhile chop veggies and add them along with the rest of the ingredients (including the cooked ground beef) to the crockpot.